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The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the unsteady flow field in the wake of Eppler‐361 airfoil undergoing harmonic pitch oscillation in both pre‐stall and post‐stall regimes.

Experimental measurements were carried out to study the characteristics of the unsteady flow field within the wake of an airfoil. All of the experiments were conducted in a low‐speed wind tunnel, and the velocity field was measured by a hot‐wire anemometry. The airfoil was given a harmonic pitching motion about its half chord axis at two reduced frequencies of 0.091 and 0.273. All experimental data were taken at the oscillation amplitude of 8°. During the experiments, the mean angle of attack was altered from 2.5 to 10° that this made it possible to study the wake in both pre‐stall and post‐stall regimes.

From the results, it can be concluded that different velocity profiles are formed in the wake at different phase angles. In addition, the hysteresis of the velocity field in the wake is captured between increasing and decreasing incidences. It is also found that the velocity field in the wake is strongly affected by the operating conditions of the airfoil, e.g. mean angle of attack, reduced frequency and instantaneous angle of attack. Huge variations in the profiles of the wake are observed at high instantaneous angles of attack when the mean angle of attack is 10°, i.e. when the airfoil experiences significant oscillations beyond the static stall. It is concluded that this is due to dynamic stall phenomenon.

Findings of the present study give valuable information, which can be used to characterize wakes of micro air vehicles, helicopter's rotor blades, and wind turbine blades. In addition to this, present findings can be used to predict dynamic stall of the above applications.

The paper is the first to investigate the unsteady wake of Eppler‐361 airfoil and to predict the dynamic stall phenomenon of this airfoil.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a systemic approach to evaluate physical condition of water pipeline infrastructure with limited condition assessment data that can help asset managers prioritize capital investments in maintenance projects for urban water pipeline systems.

Spatial pattern analyses are conducted in this research to find the spatial pattern of the service life of pipelines. Based on the spatial relationship, the critical areas where groups of pipelines with short service life are likely to be found were located using spatial statistical analyses. A visualized platform was also developed and used to validate the implementation of the proposed approach with the case study of urban water pipeline infrastructure in a city in the Midwest region of the USA.

The results of the spatial pattern analyses reveal that water pipelines are spatially clustered based on their service life. Further, it was found that on average the pipelines in the center of a city have longer service life while the average expected service life of the pipelines in the marginal areas is shorter. The interpolation method produced raster data with continuous information about the service years of pipelines that are useful for asset maintenance planning.

With the limited data, the proposed approach enables identification of the critical area of water pipelines with the likelihood of shorter service life. This result can be used as a priority rule for a rehabilitation plan and contributes to shifting from a responsive to a preventive approach in underground asset management.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough empirical investigation of the potential link between corporate innovations and corporate competitiveness in the context of the UK IT industry.

This research uses a panel of 216 UK IT firms for the period from 2000 to 2016. The sample data for this study were extracted from the Worldscope, extracted from the Datastream database from Thomson Reuters. For the analysis of the data, the generalised method of moments model is applied.

The results of this study provide empirical evidence that there exists a strong, positive link between corporate innovations and corporate competitiveness. Such evidence further reinforces the common view in the current literature of strategic management that because of the nature of their business, firms in the IT industry need to enhance their innovative capacities on a continual basis because of their critical role on these firms’ success and survival. Also, it is found that when the proxies for corporate innovations are lagged by two periods, their impact on corporate competitiveness becomes relatively more significant. However, when they are further lagged, i.e. by three periods, such an impact turns out to be relatively less pronounced.

The data gathered for this paper was restricted to IT-oriented firms in the UK. Using a secondary database (Datastream), the paper considered the period of 2000-2016.

The research makes a significant contribution to the current debate on the relationship between information technology, innovation and performance, referred to in the literature as the productivity paradox, by studying the problem in the IT industry. It supports organisations from the sector in their efforts to deal with the dynamic nature of technological innovations and of the context where they operate. Methodologically, the way the study has measured the concepts of innovation and performance and the lessons learned from their analysis has also brought value to the research.

The purpose of this study is to examine, review and analyse the current literature on building and construction quality and determine the related themes and gaps.

A systematic review approach was adopted on the building quality literature, and keywords such as “construction” or “building”; “defect” and “quality” or “rework” were searched through the Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. A number of articles were found and filtered by title, abstract and keyword relevancy. Further articles were cross-referenced from these and again filtered by title, abstract and keyword relevancy. The time period for the search was 2000–2020. A total of 97 articles were found and analysed on the topic.

A number of recurring themes were found throughout the literature. They are safety, occupier satisfaction, cost, time, licensing, culture, training, software and building quality frameworks, classifications and recommendations. These themes were linked to display relationships between them from the literature. Based on the project lifecycle stages, an amalgamated classification system was developed and is presented here. The gaps in the current literature have been analysed and reported on.

A comprehensive descriptive, thematic and gap analysis was conducted on the available literature of building and construction quality. The emerging themes were discovered, their relationships were demonstrated and the research gaps were identified. A new classification system positioned in the project lifecycle stages is presented.

This chapter presents the outcome of a study that examined the phenomena ‘Is Tourism Regulation Catalyst for Abuja Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nigeria, Hotels Business Performance Innovation?’ Previous studies on this subject area have been largely done around tourism and its impact on hotel business performance and the relationship between tourism regulation and hotel business performance from mostly western perspectives. Hence, this study aims to investigate the direct effect of tourism regulations on hotel business performance in Nigeria. Quantitative survey questionnaires were used to collect data from 176 participants comprising general managers and departmental heads in 22 key Abuja FCT Nigerian hotels. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) developed by Norton and Kaplan was adopted as the study’s theoretical framework. Data collected were analysed using the simple linear regression technique and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical analysis software tool.

The result of the analysis shows that tourism regulation has a significant and positive correlation with Abuja hotel business performances based on the BSC four dimensions of financial, customer, processes and learning and growth. The unique city characteristics of Abuja FCT were also identified as an issue for consideration in future tourism regulation innovation by the regulatory authorities. This study contributes to business performance measurement literature from the Abuja FCT hotels, Nigerian perspective, and sets an agenda for the Nigerian tourism regulators, the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) charged with diversifying the Nigerian economy revenue through tourism performance innovation. Also, a policy study into city characteristics classification as a way of innovating tourism regulations and hotels business performance is suggested.

COVID-19’s attack on the system of education left the learning of many students in limbo. For minimizing this effect, the current study sought to probe how Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) can facilitate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ vocabulary knowledge. In so doing, a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest research design was adopted to check the effect of a newly developed application (i.e. visual vocabulary learning, hereafter VVL) in an EFL classroom.

To complying with the objective, a number of intermediate students (N = 40) were considered to participate in the study. They were assigned into a visual learning group (VLG) and a nonvisual learning group (NVLG) comprising 20 students in each. The VLG was directed to learn vocabulary by a VVL, and the NVG, a conventional method was employed for vocabulary instruction. An independent samples t-test was run to screen the efficacy of the intervention.

The finding revealed that participants in the VLG outperformed significantly in the posttest. The finding is beneficial for EFL teachers, syllabus designers, and material developers to take advantage of mobile applications in teaching vocabulary.

This study was conducted during COVID 19 between two groups in Iran.

Jujube fruit (JF) (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) is used as pharmaceuticals food, flavors and food additives. The purpose of this paper is to study the suitability of JF incorporation into a commercial sponge cake formulation, and to produce a nutritious bakery product with appropriate organoleptic and technological characteristics.

The optimal level of JF was incorporated into sponge cake using a custom mixture design with three independent variables, namely, refined wheat flour (RWF, 15–28 percent), sugar (7–22 percent) and JF (0–28 percent), as well as several responses, including physical properties, texture profile analysis (TPA), sensorial evaluation and color features. Moreover, physicochemical properties (TPA and oxidative indices) of optimal cake (two of the best JF levels) were compared with control sample (without JF) during 51 days storage period, while two baking temperatures (180°C and 170°C) were used.

The optimal amounts of RWF (21.19 percent), sugar (21.20 percent) and JF (7.61 percent) required for making the sample with maximum springiness, cohesiveness, specific volume, sensorial scores and yellowness, as well as the lowest firmness, baking loss and browning were determined. Desirable effects of JF on the cake quality well maintained throughout the storage period, as TPA attributes, peroxide value, ultraviolet absorbance and acid value showed less changes in JF-incorporated cake than the control sample.

Incorporating JF (~7 percent) into the batter was successful to improve the physicochemical properties in both fresh and stored cake with chocolate-like color.

Universities play a central role in scientific development and progress in societies, so, the need for supporting new businesses in universities becomes very important that science and technology park-based incubators can meet it. The purpose of this paper is to prioritize the factors influencing strategic management of university business incubators (UBIs).

Present research prioritizes the factors influencing strategic management of incubators using analytic network process (ANP). The authors gathered data from UBIs affiliated with science and technology park of Guilan, located in city of Rasht (Iran) using the ANP questionnaire during year 2017.

Factors influencing strategic management of incubators comprised of four main criteria and 14 sub-criteria. The criteria and sub-criteria were ranked based on their importance. Results show that “talented managers” has the highest importance for strategic management of UBIs.

This study offers a novel analysis and contribution to the knowledge of ranking UBIs with a multi-criteria decision-making technique. Results of this research show the relative importance of criteria and sub-criteria, which contributes to further improvement of incubator management. University managers and incubator directors can utilize the findings for better resource allocation and aligning the strategies of incubators with macro strategies of the country.

This study aims to examine the relationship between sellers’ ethical behaviour and customer loyalty. The mediating effect of trust and satisfaction in the relationship between ethical behaviour and loyalty was also assessed in the sportswear industry.

Data were collected from 265 consumers. Ten hypotheses were developed and tested by applying structural equation modelling.

There is a significant influence between sellers’ ethical behaviour and consumers’ loyalty. Also, satisfaction and trust mediate the relationship between sellers’ ethical behaviour and consumers’ loyalty. Trust is also found as the most proximal antecedent to customer loyalty.

This study empirically justifies the relationship between sellers’ ethical behaviour towards customer satisfaction and trust. This study also provides insight into the relationships between customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty in an integrated model.

Este estudio examina la relación entre el comportamiento ético de los vendedores y la lealtad de los clientes. También se evaluó el efecto mediador de la confianza y la satisfacción en la relación entre el comportamiento ético y la lealtad en la industria de la ropa deportiva.

Se recogieron datos de 265 consumidores. Se elaboraron diez hipótesis y se comprobaron aplicando un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales.

Existe una influencia significativa entre el comportamiento ético de los vendedores y la lealtad de los consumidores. Además, la satisfacción y la confianza median en la relación entre el comportamiento ético de los vendedores y la fidelidad de los consumidores. La confianza también se revela como el antecedente más próximo a la lealtad de los consumidores.

Este estudio justifica empíricamente la relación entre el comportamiento ético de los vendedores con la satisfacción y la confianza de los clientes. Este estudio también proporciona una visión de las relaciones entre la satisfacción del cliente, la confianza y la lealtad en un modelo integrado.

本研究考察了卖家的道德行为与顾客忠诚度之间的关系。同时评估了在体育用品行业中, 信任和满意度在道德行为和忠诚度之间的中介效应。

收集了265名消费者的数据。通过运用结构方程模型, 提出并检验了10个假设。

卖方的道德行为和消费者的忠诚度之间存在着显著的影响。同时, 满意度和信任感对销售者的道德行为和消费者的忠诚度之间的关系起到了中介作用。信任也被认为是顾客忠诚度的最接近的前因。

本研究从经验上证明了卖家的道德行为与顾客满意度和信任之间的关系。本研究还对顾客满意度、信任和忠诚度之间的关系提供了一个综合模型的见解。

Ambient service provisioning with the least human participation in a pervasive computing environment, which is composed of interconnected devices and sensors, raises several trust and security issues. Accurate measuring of the integrity of the nodes that are willing to interact in this intimate environment can boost the trust evolution process, particularly in the uncertainty state and initiation phase. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The paper presents a unified approach in calculating the trust value among the nodes by leveraging some trusted computing functionalities. The approach aggregates different trust metrics like context, recommendation, and history to compute the trust index of each party more accurately. The paper also describes several existing remote attestation techniques including the chosen attestation technique for the model. The paper simulated the behaviour of the model in different scenarios and evaluates its responsiveness when the trustworthiness among peer nodes can be attested.

The results obtained from different simulated scenarios demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed model. It is shown that trust evaluation process in the proposed model is very granular and also can be fine-tuned according to the application and context. The model strength in solving the uncertain situations and assigning appropriate initial trust values is shown, as well. Finally, the paper describes the future research plan to evaluate the accuracy of the model.

The novel idea of applying remote attestation in trust determination may open up new avenues of research in the study of trust management and trust models.